PUBLISHER'S VIEWPOINT
March 2002
This Guide Ain't Easy

Some of us in the foodservice equipment and supplies business are mechanically inclined. Certainly Brian is. I tease (and honor) him by calling him our gearhead. And the fact that he reads motorcycle and car magazines, heads out to the Highland House (a renowned, upscale biker rendezvous point in Highland Park, Ill.) on Sunday to talk compression ratios, gearing and the like has a lot to do with what this magazine is.

Our annual Product Evaluations Guide is a reminder of the core mission of Foodservice Equipment Reports. When we started the magazine, more than five years ago, we wanted to provide you with as much comparative information on specific leading brands of foodservice equipment and supplies as we could without literally doing a complete tear-down and reassembly on every model. No one in this market had ever attempted anything quite like this. It was revolutionary. It wasn’t easy. It’s still not.

First, you must know that each of these articles initially requires a ton of slog work collecting and compiling the information. Then there’s a load of judgment calls, some of them with political downsides. The number of manufacturers in most of these categories makes it necessary to limit full analysis to the “leading” brands. Ooh, you should hear the screams of pain from those receiving lesser coverage. We can’t blame them, but it’s our mission. And then, of course, one of us has to write this stuff, presenting it in a way that’s clear and—this is also part of our mission—entertaining to read, we hope. It takes a lot of E&S expertise and writing skill.

Then, once a year for the Guide we have to decide which articles to update and reprint. We attempt to provide an overview of equipment from different segments, which has become a problem because we’ve done more than 30 brand-comparison articles since our beginning. We just can’t reprint them all. And that’s why you’ll find many more comparative articles archived on our Web site, www.fermag.com.

Each of the articles reprinted this year, and every year, has gone through a thorough review by us, aided for updating by the manufacturers whose products are discussed. If a spec has changed or model been discontinued and replaced by another, we change it. In some cases, whole sections of stories are rewritten.

We know you find the results useful. We’re glad, because this ain’t easy.

Cheers,

Robin Ashton
Publisher